Diamer-Basha Dam: why so much rejoicing?
One might wonder why it took so long. What were the previous governments doing? If the questions intrigue you, go ahead, read whatever this article offers you, and quench your thirst for the answers.
It was back then in 1980 when some experts suggested that erecting a flurry of dams, including Diamer-Basha Dam, was imperative to meet the future needs of the country. Simply an idea took birth, but it was not until 1998 that the foundation stone of the Diamer-Basha dam had been laid down by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Came later president Pervez Musharaf in 1999, during whose tenure the project saw itself getting inaugurated for the second time in 2005 by then serving prime minister Shaukat Aziz. Meanwhile, a feasibility report had already been published in 2004. Nevertheless, the dam could not make it to the construction phase yet.
A few years passed by, and a new democratic government took over the helm. It ordered a revised feasibility report in 2008, which quoted the budget for the plan at $12.6 billion – indeed, a massive sum for a budget-deficit country. Because the state could not have afforded the amount from its kitty, it sought after the international donors. Somehow the World Bank and Asian Development agreed to finance the infrastructure, only to backtrack from their commitments later on in 2012. They expressed their reservations over a part of the designated territory for the dam, which lies in Gilgit Baltistan. They followed up with the demand for securing approval from India beforehand to receive financial assistance. However, the government didn’t give in to the conditionalities of financers, delaying the project once more. To add, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had arranged the third foundation stone-laying ceremony in 2011.
The story now enters into 2013. It was then when the PML-N won the general elections, replacing the PPP at the center. Those were the days when the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project was still under deliberations. As the deal would have come as a huge investment opportunity for the country, the sitting government had decided to get the Diamer-Basha dam financed under the CPEC. The bid, however, was dropped in 2017 when China not only had inflated the cost at $14 billion but also put strict conditions over the issue of ownership. Hence the project encountered setbacks yet again.
A year later, in 2018, the PTI took charge of the state, and Imran Khan, a charismatic leader, became the prime minister, with having done a multitude of promises in his election manifesto. In that vein, a fundraising campaign was initiated; however, only after the Supreme Court had issued the orders. But to everyone’s sorrow, the fundraising drive could not yield more than $62.57 million as of January 2020. So when the prime minister took to the media and congratulated the nation that the construction work has begun, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, after the cycle of forty years, the state has broken the logjam. The construction work on the dam has begun at last, and the dam would be finished by 2028, as per the official reports. Once completed, it will generate an economic value of $1.2 billion annually, extend the country’s water storage capacity from 30 to 45 days, extend the life of Tarbela Dam by 35 years, and produce 4800 MW of electricity. All in all, the project is going to be a hit. And, indeed, this is the reason that people in Pakistan are celebrating the news.
Hopefully, by now, whoever is reading this line would have got the answers to the questions above raised. That is it.
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